I'll just leave this here. I know there has been plenty of discussion about remastering and whatever. But thought I'd ask if they'd ever heard of a non-fan commenting on the production.

I don't even know what you mean by thin production. Can you give some examples?

OP means the non tubby mixed for earbuds nu sound that people think is music these days

not necessarily even that. I have always been a Prince fan in spite of the sound of his music. It is definitely of the 80s, that terribly thin digital synthesizer sound, made worse by digital recording techniques and early cd mastering. As good as most 70s music sounds, in the 80s it's simply bad. For instance, the first kravitz album, Let Love Rule, was such a relieve to listen to. And it got panned for sounding like wet cardboard!

To me, Prince's synths and drum computers mostly sounded like kids toys. But the songs were (are!) so strong that it rises above it. And then there was the few times he made his music sound (almost) good... Madhouse 8, the album (no, not 6), Rainbow Children and now Welcome To America. If only he'd done that more.

But it was simply who he was. He ruined Piano and a microphone by adding pads to his synthesizer that he played instead of a piano. But his touch and unique songs kept me coming back. Always with trepidation, always with hesitation, always knowing I'd be disappointed at some level... but he didn't have the patience to make things sound good, he wanted the magic of the first discovery of a song. And it sure led to some magic.

To the OP, try to let go of that reaction (listen to Steely Dan later, it'll be there and sounding great and being great as well), just listen to the songs, let yourself be tempted in, further and further. It's worth it, there's real magic there, just behind the initial impressions of the sound.

Production wise you have a point, but sound wise it was already miles better than the dark days of Controversy and 1999. Dirty Mind sounded cool still (and For You was his best sounding record until Rainbow Children), but it wasn't until Parade that the sounds really started to improve. With up and downs (I mean, Batdance, really?)

TheEnglishGent said:

I don't even know what you mean by thin production. Can you give some examples?

Everything after Emancipation except The Rainbow Children.

TrivialPursuit said:

So far, according to the responses, thin production examples are...

everything after Emancipation and stuff from the 80's.

The only problems i have audio-wise is how quiet his 80s CD's are compared to the mid 90s onwards brickwalled CD's. Back to vinyl is an expensive pleasure.

[Edited 7/30/21 6:05am]

OperatingThetan said:

TrivialPursuit said:

Everything after Emancipation except The Rainbow Children.

Lotusflow3r and HitNRun Phase 2 have thin production? To my ears, the Welcome 2 America album is also well-produced, although I'm admittedly no audiophile.

Flat. Flat.

after the first two albums, princes production, or his engineering maybe, started to get less polished. or less typically pleasing to the ear.

his records were all mixed and finished really really fast.

he had no interest in making records that sounded 'good' or did things 'well' sonically. compare his records to madonna, def lepard, zapp, or jam and lewis' albums like janet jacksons control.

even SOTT, which i love as an album, a lot of that could do with more sonic honing.

i dont think this applies to all his songs, but it def does apply to a good number of them.

its good i suppose he doesnt sound like a typically sterile mid-late 80s artist, but a lot of lovesexy for instance is quite off sonically. ana stesia for example could have done with more work.

i dont think he had any interest in sonics, he was only interested in the songs and sounds, to a certain extent. if he had, he would have employed more experienced engineers.

AnnaSantana said:

Yes, all of Prince's music sucks, which is why none of you can stop listening to it.

i like his raw stuff .. gimme dirty mind and controversy and the cross and chaos and da bang and calhoune and live days of wild ... 1999 slams in the car and everything thru sott sounds fanfucking tastic but sounds like dogshit remastered .. prolly ur new crappy soundsystem designed for mp3s made on toy laptops is what is messin up ur "sound" .. gotta get those classic 80s stereo n speakers to hear the music right .. i tried a new fangled stereo recently and it sounded like complete shit .. i dont know how u youngsters even listen anymore .. got me some bose onkyo sony vintage gear and prince fuckin pops thru those speakers no prob .. starts sounding like shit around the gold experience ..

Interesting someone eles mentioned this. When I first became a Prince fan, it was one of the things that stopped me getting into his music. It's partially the original productions/mixes, but the thin-sounding Vinyl-to-CD Warner transfers from the '80s don't help. I ended up just buying the vinyl reissues... Thankfully we now have the Super Deluxe remasters of 1999 and SoTT on digital platforms.

tbh sometimes i listen to certain prince songs and think that sonically its just awful.

but he was a song man, not a sounds man.

Just listened to W2A on youtube, compressed as it is, on my telly over my home cinema set up. Banging! Sounds ok to me.

[Edited 7/30/21 6:01am]